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A Brief History of Paradox

In the Fall of 1985, Paradox®, the DOS version of course, was introduced by a company named Ansa. Of today's database software, only Paradox®, dBASE® and FoxPro® go back to the early DOS days, with Paradox® dominating. The most visible venture capitalist in Ansa was Ben Rosen, who backed a number of winners in the computer arena.

Paradox® has evolved, yet some of the well-thought-out original concepts and foundations, such as the basic table structure, Query by Example (the first PC-based implementation of QBE), and built-in data validation capabilities, still exist. The foundations of the first Windows® version of Paradox® have proven solid also, and have evolved to in a variety of ways including interacting with web pages.

Throughout this evolution, both in DOS and Windows® versions, Paradox® has always maintained backwards compatibility. That is somewhat atypical in the database software world. Older tables, objects, and code work in later versions. (Obviously this was not the case going from DOS to Windows® versions, but even then tables were compatible.)

The owning companies also evolved, as Borland acquired Ansa and later sold Paradox® to Corel. The leading developers have changed with time, for varied reasons, but there are Paradox® DOS days developers still utilizing Paradox® today.

From the late 1980s days of the BORDB (Borland database) forum on CompuServe to the current Corel® newsgroups, there has been extraordinary technical support from active Paradox® developers. Their chief motivations are helping others, continuing a strong Paradox community to do just that, and helping Paradox® continue to move forward in the best ways possible. This Paradox® community has found that Paradox® can handle just about any database application needs, simple or complex.

Three key words describe Paradox®, persistence, robustness, and resiliency.

Written by Stacy Rowley, First Service Consulting



Editor's Note: A more detailed history is in the works. Please check back often.



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